Hat cover with perforated brim



April 1, 1952 R. J. WEIKERT HAT COVER WITH PERFORATED BRIM Filed Feb. 17, 1950 Patented Apr. 1, 1952 HAT COVER WITH PERFORATED BEIM Roy J.Weikert, Covington, Ohio, assigner to The Joseph Lincoln ManufacturingCompany, Inc., Covington, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware ApplicationFebruary 17, 1950, Serial No. 144,655

5 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in a seamless hat cover that isparticularly adapted for the protection of fur felt hats during shippingor in storage on dealers shelves.

The fur felt hat trade is constantly confronted with an age-old problemof the trade of protecting the surface of fur felt hats during shippingof the hats and storage of them at the factories and in the retailstores to prevent stay or ring marks on the brims of the hats as aresult of contact of the paper-board collars used in separating one hatfrom` another upon the brims of the hats when they are stacked one uponthe other during shipping or storage.

Also, when fur felt hats are stacked upon one another, the headband ofone hat will rub upon the finished fur felt exterior of an under hatcausing what is commonly known as sweat-band burns on the fur felt as aresult of the rubbing action of the hatband on the fur felt, which isanother problem of delivering hats in a factoryfresh condition to theconsumer. The flattening or compressing of the felt hat produces defectsthat can only be cured at substantial expense by manual surfacetreatment of the felt.

Also, when hats are stacked upon one another for any period of time theweight of the hats resting on the brims of the lower hats causes acompacting or marking of the felt. This defect can only be remedied byhand-working of the surface of the brim to again raise the felt to itsnormal condition and thus correct the defect caused by the storage ofthe hats.

To overcome the difculties aforementioned, a seamless one-piece hatcover formed from a sheet of rubber hydrochloride is provided to coverthe exterior surface of the hat to prevent direct rubbing action of onehat upon another during shipment and While in storage. Such a hat coveris disclosed in my Patent No. 2,344,927, dated March 21, 1944.

The hat cover of this invention is formed by placing a disc of a thinsheet of rubber hydrochloride over a male form that is in the shape of ahat so that the sheet is shaped with a crown portion that is slightlylarger than the crown of a hat, the center portion of the disc of thesheet being drawn to the desired shape. This is occasioned underconditions of heat and moisture that is more fully disclosed in myPatent No. 2,295,066, dated September 8, 1942.

This invention relates to an improvement in the hat cover, andparticularly to an improvement relating to the brim portion of the hatcover by which the brim portion is provided with a myriad of slightprojections on the under-side of the brim portion which will penetratethe felt on the brim of a hat to support the body of the brim portion ofthe hat cover in spaced relationship to the body portion of the brim ofthe hat and thereby prevent matting of the iur felt on the surface ofthe brim of the hat.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a one-pieceseamless hat cover of a gossarner-like thinness consisting of a crownportion and a brim portion in which the brim portion is provided with aplurality of closely spaced projections or feet extending from the undersurface of the brim portion of the hat cover to support the brim portionin spaced relationship to a surface upon which the brim rests.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a hat cover inaccordance with the foregoing object wherein the projections on theunder-side of the brim of the hat cover are formed Further objects andadvantages will become apparent from the drawings and the followingdescription.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective elevational view of the hat cover of thisinvention.

Figure 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a hat illustrating a hatcover in place on the same.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a stack of hatsillustrating the problem that is overcome by the hat cover of thisinvention.

Figure 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of theimproved brim portionof the hatl cover of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is an enlarged cross-sectional view illustrating the manner inwhich the improved brim of the hat cover of Figure 1 rests upon the brimof a hat.

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic illustration of a method of making theimproved brim illustrated in Figure 4.

In this invention the hat cap or protective covering device is made froma very thin. sheet of rubber hydrochloride of the type known :asPliofilm lthat is manufactured by The Goodyear Tire 8a Rubber Company,Akron, Ohio, the name Pliolm being the trade-mark of The Goodyear Tire &Rubber Company for this particular product. The sheet of rubberhydrochloride from which the hat covers are made has a thickness ofapproximately .0012" to .0015" so that the sheet from which the hatcover is made is very light and wi11 cause no substantial weight uponthe fur felt of a hat upon which the hat cover is placed.

Rubber hydrochloride is impervious to all natural hat enemies such asoils, acids, alkalines, water, etc., so that it will neither absorb norpermit penetration of these materials onto the surface of a hatprotected thereby. Also, rubber hydrochloride has an' extremely smoothsurface so that friction between the hat and the hat cover issubstantially eliminated, and it has no lint or color that can beconveyed to a hat as is frequently the case in the use of various paperproducts.

To form the hat cover illustrated inFigure 1 consisting of the Vcrownportion I and the brim I I, a disc of rubber hydrochloride of thethickness referred to previously is placed over an opening in a chamberinto which steam is introduced. Steam isV introduced into the chamber onone side of the sheet of material to condition the rubber hydrochlorideso that it can be stretched by a male mold that is shaped in the form ofa hat. The crown portion I0' of the hat cover is reduced in thickness inthis drawing operation to .0002" to .0005". This reduction in thicknessis for the express purpose of eliminating any substantial weight orfriction on the felt surface of a hat. The result of the process is toform a onepiece seamless article which will closely fit the contour of ahat over which it is placed. The hat cover per se and the process ofmaking it are more particularly disclosed in my patents referred toherein.

The improvement in this invention relates to the brim I2 of the hatcover.

One of the problems in protecting the nap of a fur feltY hat, andparticularly the brim` portion, is to prevent the nap from being presseddown against the body of the brim during shipment and storage of thehats.

In this invention, therefore, the brim portion I2 of the hat cover isprovided with a plurality of very small projections I3 that extend fromrthe under-face I4 of the brim I2. These projections I3 are preferably inthe form of pinhole punctures I5, the puncture being made from the topsurface I6 of thev brim I2 so that there is an extrusion formed from theunder-face I4 of the r brim forming the projections I3. It will ofcourse be understood that the projections I3 can be formed in other waysthan by way of pin puncture, such as die-forming or forming'betweenrails under heatl and pressure.

In Figure 6 therel is illustrated a device for-producing the projectionsI3 by the pin puncture method wherein the brim I2 of the hat cover isrrun between a soft rubber roll and al roll `2I having a plurality ofpins 22 projecting from the surface thereof. Simultaneous rotation ofthe rolls causes the brim I2 to be fed between the rolls and the pins 22will puncture the brim forming the extruded projections I3, and alsowilll provide pin punctures I5 in the brim I2.

When the improved hat cover of this invention is placed upon a hat 25,as illustrated in Figures 2 and 3, the brim portion I2 of the hat cover30V will rest upon the brim 26 of the hat in such a mannery that the nap21 will not be compressed against the body of the brim. Also, the crownportion is of such eXtreme thinness that the nap of the hat crown willnot be compressed even though slight wrinkles should occur in the crownportion of the hat-cover when one hat is placed upon another. Y

As shown in Figure 5, the ends of the projections I3 rest upon the bodyof the brim 26, thus spacing the body of the brim I2 of the hat coverfrom the brim 26 of the hat to allow the nap 21 to remain in anup-raised condition, without compacting.

Hat covers having the improved brim of this invention have been testedduring the course of many commercial shipments and have been found toeliminate the usual compacting of the nap Y on the surface of the brims,which improves the appearance of the hats as they are unpacked andeliminates the necessity for hand-finishing of the brims by the dealer.The projections on the under-side of the brim of the hat cover so engagethe felt nap of the brim of a hat that there is no relative surfacemovement between the cover brim and' the hat brim, thus eliminatingrubbing action on the hat brim.

While the hat cover described and illustrated herein is a preferred formof the invention, yet

it is capable of modification without departingV from the spirit of theinvention, and those modifications that fall within the scope of theappended claims are intended to be included herein. It will also beunderstood that films other than rubber hydrochloride can be used in themanufacture ofV the hat cover such as films made of polyethylene orpolythene. Y

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. In a hat cover of the character described having a crown portion anda brim portion, the improvement that consists of a plurality of smallprojections extending downwardly from the under face of the brim` of thehat cover, which projections are disposed in closely spaced relationshipover substantially the entire under faceof the brim.

2. In a hat cover of the character described having a crown portion anda brim portion, the improvement that consists of a multiplicity of smallextruded projections extending downwardly from the under face of thebrim of the hat cover, which projections are disposed in closely spacedrelationship over substantially the entire under face of the brim. Y K

3. In a hat cover of the character described having a crown portion anda brim portion, the

improvement that consists of a multiplicity ofV pinv puncturedprojections in the brim portion projecting downwardly from the underface of the brim of a hatcover, which punctured projections are disposedin closely' spaced relationship over substantially the entire under faceof the brim.

4. In aV one-piece seamless hat cover for covering the crown and theupper surface of the brim of a hat that is formed from a single sheet oftissue thin innitely exible rubber hydrochloride that includes a crownportion formed by stretching the central area of a sheet of rubberhydrochloride over a crown shaped form to a size slightlyr large thanVthe crown of a hat and'subsequently permanentlysetting the same inthisshape whereby the crown portion` can be positioned upon the crown of ahat for resting upon and engaging the same, without any elasticresiliency, and an integral brim'portion extending annularly from thecrown portion for solely lying upon and protecting the upper brimsurfacel of a hat; theV hat cover having the general characteristics ofa goss-amer like thinness which is enhancedV in the crown.

portion thereof by reducing the wall thickness of the crown portion overthe wall thickness of the brim portion to eliminate any substantialweight or friction upon the surface of the hat, and a soft smoothcontinuous glazed inner surface having no abrading qualities, theimprovement that consists of a multiplicity of small projections`extending downwardly from the under face of the brim portion of the hatcover, which projections are disposed in closely spaced relationshipover substantially the entire under face of the brim.

5. In a `one-piece seamless hat cover for covering the crown and theupper surface of the brim of a hat that is formed from a single sheet oftissue thin innitely iiexible rubber hydrochloride that includes a crownportion formed by stretching the central. area of .a sheet of rubberhydrochloride over a crown shaped form to a size slightly larger thanthe crown of a hat and subsequently permanently setting the same in thisshape whereby the crown portion can be positioned upon the crown of ahat for resting upon and engaging the same without any elasticresiliency, and an in- 25 tegral brim portion extending annularly fromthe `crown portion for solely lying upon and protecting the upper brimsurface of a hat; the hat cover having the general characteristics of agossamer like thinness which is enhanced in the crown portion thereof byreducing the wall thickness of the crown portion over the wall thicknessof the brim portion to eliminate any substantial weight or friction uponthe surface of the hat, and a soft smooth continuous glazed innersurface having no abrading qualities, the improvement that consists of amultiplicity of pin punctured projections in the brim portion of the hatcover projecting from the under face of the brim portion, which pinpunctured projections are disposed in closely spaced relationship oversubstantially the entire under face of the brim.

ROY J. WEIKERT.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Weikert Mar. 21, 1944Number

